suppLEMEnt to phi dELta kappan
*
for the
May 2014
issue
for
the
May 2014
issue
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION GUIDE
By Lois Brown Easton
Contents
3
Guide to 6 common mistakes in motivating students
By Kristy Cooper
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 11-17
6
Guide to 8 conditions for motivated learning
By Kathleen Cushman
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 18-22
8
Guide to Searching for the irresistible
By Hilary Dack and Carol Ann Tomlinson
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 43-47
10
Guide to Student disengagement: It’s deeper than you think
By Elliot Washor and Charlie Mojkowski
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 8-10
14
Applications
Using this guide
This discussion guide is intended to assist Kappan readers who want to use articles in staff meetings or university classroom
discussions.
Members of PDK International have permission to make copies of the enclosed activities for use in staff meetings, professional
development activities, or university classroom discussions. Please ensure that PDK International and Kappan magazine are credited
with this material.
All publications and cartoons in Kappan are copyrighted by PDK International, Inc. and/or by the authors. Multiple copies may not be
made without permission.
Send permission requests to [email protected].
Copyright PDK International, 2014. All rights reserved.
6 common mistakes in motivating students
By Kristy Cooper
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 11-17
ovErviEW of thE articLE
According to the author’s research, relevance is the strongest predictor of engagement and can be fostered if teachers avoid six errors
related to helping students see significance in their learning.
kEy points
• The author reports on research related to student engagement in a large comprehensive high school in Texas.
• She asked students to report on 12 aspects of their classes (such as relevance and group work) and then examined their
perceptions of these aspects and their level of engagement.
• She found that student perception of relevance strongly predicted engagement.
• In further study, she identified six errors teachers commonly make regarding relevance.
Error #1 is asking students to learn something because they “have to”; students need to see the instrumental value of each
subject.
Error #2 is commiserating with students about needing to “hang in there” to learn their subjects; instead, teachers of
traditionally “hard” subjects need to help students find what is unique, intriguing, enjoyable, fascinating, or thought-provoking
about that subject.
Error #3 is promoting future utility (“You’ll need this when you. . . .”) as opposed to current utility.
Error #4 is narrowing the use of a subject by linking it to a specific career, such as architecture, which may apply to only a few
students.
Error #5 is trying to make a subject relevant by tying it to college success.
Error #6 is making learning into a game rather than letting learners engage in their learning as if they were practitioners
(mathematicians or historians, for example).
• As far back as 1892, the Committee of Ten provided a rationale for requiring various subjects — a rationale that applies today in
terms of their relevance.
• The author asserts that most students are ready and willing to find relevance in their learning and need only to have teachers
share with them how content is instrumental, useful, and interesting and has intrinsic value.
dEEpEn your thinking
1. What were your reasons for learning in school? To what extent were these reasons extrinsic? Intrinsic?
2. What motivated you to learn subjects you thought were hard or that you found uninteresting?
3. Have you ever found yourself saying, “Oh, I learned that in school”? What situations led you to realize that something you
learned in school applied to your current life? What school content was applicable in the out-of-school situation?
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4. What evidence do you have that relevance is related to engagement in learning? For yourself, personally? For others?
5. To what extent do you think teachers today make the following mistakes when trying to engage students in learning? What
evidence do you have?
a. “Because we have to”
b. “Sorry, folks, it’s math.”
c. “When you grow up”
d. “Architects use geometry.”
e. “You need to know this for college.”
f. “Let’s play a game.”
Extend your thoughts through activities for group discussion
Read the following articles about motivation in this issue of Kappan:
8 conditions for motivated learning, by Kathleen Cushman
Searching for the irresistible, by Hilary Dack and Carol Ann Tomlinson
Student disengagement: It’s deeper than you think, by Elliot Washor and Charlie Mojkowski
The authors of these articles — and the article you just read — take different approaches to motivation, yet they are like-minded about
the criticality of motivation for learning. With colleagues, decide whether you want to take a micro (student-level) or macro (systemlevel) approach to motivation, according to this continuum:
Level of application
MicroMacro
Individual
students
Classroom Schools
DistrictsStates
subjects or
grades
Then, with colleagues, consider one of the elements related to motivation proposed by each of the authors. Discuss how that element
might play out for the level of application you have chosen.
Example
You’ve chosen to discuss schools, and you’ve selected “Sorry, folks, it’s math” from the Cooper article; “We feel OK” from the
Cushman article; teachers “teach up” to students and provide scaffolding from the Dack & Tomlinson article; and play from the Washor
& Mojkowski article.
With colleagues, engage in a dialogue about how the schools you know do and do not help students feel OK and what could be done
to enhance the school’s ability to help students feel OK.
Repeat with any other level of application.
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Mistakes in
motivating students
Conditions for
motivating students
Principles for
engaging students
Student expectations
of schools
(Cooper)
(Cushman)
(Dack & Tomlinson)
(Washor & Mojkowski)
1. “Because we have to”
1. “We feel OK.”
2. “Sorry, folks, it’s math.”
2. “It matters.”
3. “When you grow up”
3. “It’s active.”
4. “Architects use
geometry.”
4. “It stretches us.”
5. “You need to know this
for college.”
6. “Let’s play a game.”
1. Curriculum helps
students connect
personally to content.
2. Students can make
choices about what
and how to learn.
5. “We have a coach.”
6. “We have to use it.”
7. “We think back on it.”
8. “We plan our next
steps.”
3. Students focus on
ideas, concepts, and
skills that are worth
learning.
4. Teachers “teach up” to
students and provide
scaffolding.
1.Relationships
2.Relevance
3.Choice
4.Challenge
5.Authenticity
6.Application
7.Play
8. Practice
9. Time
10.Timing
11. Educators as
“fiduciaries”
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8 conditions for motivated learning
By Kathleen Cushman
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 18-22
ovErviEW of thE articLE
Eight conditions — all of which can be provided by educators in classrooms and schools — help students engage in their learning.
kEy points
• The author uses stories of real students she interviewed in a project called What Kids Can Do (WKCD) to illustrate her points.
• “The Motivation Equation” describes what learners need to succeed:
V
x
E
=
M
Value
x
Expectancy
=
Motivation
• The conditions that help students learn align with many findings in neuroscience and can be summarized as the “Gr8 8.”
• Condition #1: “We feel OK,” which means students feel safe and well cared for, emotionally and physically.
• Condition #2: “It matters,” which means students engage in work that is meaningful to them.
• Condition #3: “It’s active,” which means the task is hands-on, interactive, imaginative, collaborative, and fun.
• Condition #4: “It stretches us,” which means the task is hard but doable; it has the right amount of challenge in it.
• Condition #5: “We have a coach,” which means the teacher is not the expert but supports learning by demonstrating,
encouraging, questioning, and helping students learn through analysis of errors.
• Condition #6: “We have to use it,” which means students have to present, demonstrate, perform, apply, or teach what they
learned to others.
• Condition #7: “We think back on it,” which means students reflect on their learning and growth, especially what challenged them
and how they met those challenges; they narrate their own stories of learning.
• Condition #8: “We plan our next steps,” which means they engage in reflective discussion with others about their plans for
learning.
dEEpEn your thinking
1. When you were a K-12 student, did someone ever ask you about your learning: how you learn, what you need to learn, what
hampered your learning, or what helped you learn?
2. How do you define motivation? What would you see or hear if students were motivated? If they were not motivated?
3. To what extent do you think students today are intrinsically motivated to learn? What conditions help them express their
internal motivation to learn? What conditions suppress their internal motivation to learn?
4. What strategies in use today — such as scaffolding, differentiation, flipped classrooms — help motivate students to learn?
What strategies do not?
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5. What responsibility do educators have regarding these eight conditions for motivation? What can they do, specifically, to make
sure that these conditions operate in classrooms, and what are the challenges of doing so?
• Making sure students feel safe, physically, and emotionally.
• Making the learning and the work matter to young people.
• Making sure learning is active, interactive, collaborative, interesting, even fun.
• Making sure the learning stretches students — that it’s hard but doable.
• Coaching students rather than simply transmitting knowledge.
• Making sure students use their learning by demonstrating, applying, or teaching it to others.
• Helping students reflect on and make sense of their learning.
• Helping students organize their lives for learning.
Extend your thoughts through activities for group discussion
Read the following other articles about motivation in this issue of Kappan:
6 common mistakes in motivating students, by Kristy Cooper
Searching for the irresistible, by Hilary Dack and Carol Ann Tomlinson
Student disengagement: It’s deeper than you think, by Elliot Washor and Charlie Mojkowski
Then, follow the directions in the Professional Development Guide for the Cooper article.
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searching for the irresistible
By Hilary Dack and Carol Ann Tomlinson
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 43-47
ovErviEW of thE articLE
Four principles related to curriculum and instruction can be applied in classrooms to help all students engage in their learning.
kEy points
• Engagement needs to be planned for, it doesn’t just happen.
• The authors provide four principles that help students engage with content.
• The authors describe a civics teacher, Mr. Garcia, who redesigns two units (one on U.S. Supreme Court justices and the other on
government authority) to make them more engaging.
• Principle #1 is that curriculum helps students connect personally to content; Garcia enticed students into learning by posting
mystery facts about Supreme Court justices that intrigued students and linked them to their own lives.
• Principle #2 is that students can make choices for learning; Garcia developed tasks that invited practical, analytic, or creative
responses.
• Principle #3 requires educators to focus on ideas worth learning; Garcia narrowed the many topics his students usually learned
about to a single, big idea topic: leadership. He narrowed the second unit of study to an essential question about government
authority and individual rights.
• Principle #4 focuses on the need for educators to “teach up” to challenge and support success of all students; Garcia’s second
unit asked students to address random drug testing of public school students, assigning them to play different roles at a
hypothetical school board meeting regarding this issue.
dEEpEn your thinking
1. The authors titled this article “Searching for the irresistible.” What was irresistible to you in terms of your K-12 learning? What
really engaged you in your own learning?
2. How did you respond to subjects or content that weren’t particularly irresistible? What — if anything — did teachers do to try
to engage you in these subjects or content?
3. Think of a topic that you would not naturally find “relevant, culturally significant, emotionally evocative, or novel.” What could a
teacher do to make it so for you?
4. How does the ability to make choices in learning lead to engagement?
5. In what areas can educators provide choices? Think of the choice to work alone or with others, for example.
6. Think of any content area — science, for example. What would be nice to learn in this area, but not critical? What is critical,
i.e., worthy of study?
7. How well do the Common Core State Standards differentiate between what is nice to know/do and what is critical to know/
do?
8. What does the phrase “teach up” mean to you?
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9. The authors describe “teaching up” as “creating the richest curriculum possible and then providing scaffolding to help the
broadest range of students access it.” To what extent do schools do this (rather than watering down content)?
10. How can a teacher address the readiness needs of all students in a single class studying a single concept?
Extend your thoughts through activities for group discussion
Read the following other articles about motivation in this issue of Kappan:
6 common mistakes in motivating students, by Kristy Cooper
8 conditions for motivated learning, by Kathleen Cushman
Student disengagement: It’s deeper than you think, by Elliot Washor and Charlie Mojkowski
Then, follow the directions in the Professional Development Guide for the Cooper article.
kappanmagazine.org
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student disengagement: it’s deeper
than you think
By Elliot Washor and Charlie Mojkowski
Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (8), 8-10
ovErviEW of thE articLE
Flip the concept of expectations from what schools require of students to what students should require of schools in order to succeed,
including several conditions for engaging in learning.
kEy points
• The authors distinguish between dropouts and student disengagement (dropping “out in their heads”), which they see primarily in
poor urban and rural communities.
• While potential dropouts have a variety of programs for early identification and treatment, “disengaged students are just off the
radar screens.”
• Disengaged students are those who graduate but do so unprepared for college or career . . . or lifetime learning.
• Education is all about expectations — what schools expect of students — but students need to have and express expectations,
too.
• These expectations can be seen as “rules for engagement” related to what young people need in order to learn; they can also be
seen as a way to evaluate how well a school provides for students.
• The authors provide a set of categories for these rules of engagement, with questions students could ask of teachers and
administrators.
• The questions in the first category, relationships, ask how well people in the school know the student and help them connect to
others.
• The second category, relevance, includes questions related to interests, including career interests, and contributions to society.
• Choice questions focus on how students make choices about what, when, and how they learn and work, including how they’re
accountable.
• The category of challenge addresses how students are working on “real-world, high and meaningful standards.”
• In authenticity, students ask questions about how significant and valued their learning and work are outside the school
community.
• Application questions relate to real-word settings and problems.
• Questions about play deal with opportunities to explore without failure.
• The practice questions relate to deep and sustained practice with guidance.
• Time questions address pace and having sufficient time “to go deep as well as broad” in learning.
• The category timing is about sequence of learning — the right time for pursuing certain learning.
• The authors don’t see this list as definitive or comprehensive, but they encourage educators to consider what students should
expect from schools as a corollary to what schools expect of students.
• They speculate that the lack of attention to disengagement (unlike the focus of attention on dropouts) may be because
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disengagement is a bigger issue, requiring schoolwide and systemic changes, rather than bandage remedies, such as charter or
alternative schools.
• They recommend that teachers “act as fiduciaries for students, giving serious attention to their choices regarding their education,
considering what is best for each student, and helping each to discover what is best for him or her.”
• The authors argue that schools must prize learning both within school and outside it.
Deepen your thinking
1. What policies has your organization put into place to address the dropout problem? What structures are in place in schools
and districts in your state to address this problem?
2. What policies has your organization put into place to address students who “stay in school but drop out in their heads” —
graduating with a piece of paper but little else to sustain their further learning and productivity?
3. What do students expect of schools?
4. How well did your K-12 schools do the following:
• Help you form and build relationships?
• Make what you were learning relevant to your interests? Help you see how your learning contributed to society?
• Allow you to make choices about how, when, and what you’d learn and how you’d demonstrate learning?
• Challenge you with meaningful learning and real-world standards?
• Engage you in significant real-world tasks with value to the community?
• Help you apply what you were learning to solve real problems?
• Encourage you to explore, experiment, and have fun learning?
• Provide meaningful practice with guidance?
• Allow you to learn at your own pace, with sufficient time for going deeply as well as broadly in your learning?
• Allow you to sequence your learning so that it was meaningful for you?
5. To what extent do you agree with the authors that educators are focused on the right problem when they focus on
disengagement?
6. To what extent do you agree that focusing on the dropout problem doesn’t require “schools to redesign themselves or change
how they operate” whereas focusing on disengagement would require redesign?
7. What do you think of the authors’ idea that schools must provide for learning both within and outside school walls?
8. What would sharing a set of student expectations for a school or district you know well do to change the conversation, if not
the actual practice or structure of schools, to make them more engaging?
9. How could these expectations be used to assess how well a school is doing?
Extend your thoughts through activities for group discussion
Read the following other articles about motivation in this issue of Kappan:
6 common mistakes in motivating students, by Kristy Cooper
8 conditions for motivated learning, by Kathleen Cushman
Searching for the irresistible, by Hilary Dack and Carol Ann Tomlinson
Then, follow the directions in the Professional Development Guide for the Cooper article.
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11
Applications
This Professional Development Guide was created with the characteristics of adult learners in mind (Tallerico, 2005):
• Active engagement
• Relevance to current challenges
• Integration of experience
• Learning style variation
• Choice and self-direction
As you think about sharing this article with other adults, how could you fulfill the adult learning needs above?
This Professional Development Guide was created so that readers could apply what they have learned to work in classrooms
(Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001):
• Identifying Similarities and Differences
• Summarizing and Note-Taking
• Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
• Homework and Practice
• Nonlinguistic Representations
• Cooperative Learning
• Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
• Generating and Testing Hypotheses
• Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
As you think about sharing this article with classroom teachers, how could you use these strategies with them?
References
Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J.E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing
student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tallerico, M. (2005). Supporting and sustaining teachers’ professional development: A principal’s guide (pp. 54-63). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin.
About the Author
Lois Brown Easton is a consultant, coach, and author with a particular interest in learning designs — for adults and for students.
She retired as director of professional development at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Estes Park, Colo.
From 1992 to 1994, she was director of Re:Learning Systems at the Education Commission of the States (ECS). Re:Learning was
a partnership between the Coalition of Essential Schools and ECS. Before that, she served in the Arizona Department of Education
in a variety of positions: English/language arts coordinator, director of curriculum and instruction, and director of curriculum and
assessment planning.
A middle school English teacher for 15 years, Easton earned her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona. Easton has been a frequent
presenter at conferences and a contributor to educational journals.
She was editor and contributor to Powerful Designs for Professional Learning (NSDC, 2004 & 2008). Her other books include:
•The Other Side of Curriculum: Lessons From Learners (Heinemann, 2002);
•Engaging the Disengaged: How Schools Can Help Struggling Students Succeed (Corwin, 2008);
•Protocols for Professional Learning (ASCD, 2009); and
•Professional Learning Communities by Design: Putting the Learning Back Into PLCs (Learning Forward and Corwin, 2011).
Easton lives and works in Arizona. Email her at [email protected].
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